The seasons are changing. It can be felt in the air. I know that they have already changed based on the calendar, but this week we expect a few nights with lows near freezing!

September is being drawn to a close. Our garden was a miserable failure this year, but I have a few theories as to why. We’ll be purchasing pumpkins for the first time in nearly ten years! The tomatoes did alright, not stellar, but good enough. The green beans were great (those that survived the bunnies and the Japanese beetles munching the leaves). The asparagus was good and when I mowed it all over on Friday, there were new shoots by Monday (it is a cool season crop after all!). Our loses include: corn, peas, cantaloupe, watermelon, pumpkins (pie and carving), zucchini, and cucumber. That’s a lot that didn’t come to be.

The pool is finally closed. Though we think there is a leak in the seam at the bottom of the liner. So either there will be water in the pool in the spring, or, there won’t be. If there isn’t, it should be easier to find the leak, right? Plus, we’re contemplating moving the monster if its empty anyway. Closer to the patio rather than across the yard (and the gravel driveway). There is space now near the patio thanks to the GIANT tree that toppled over back in June.

The first month of school is essentially over now. Phoebe absolutely loves kindergarten so far. She loves riding the bus, eating lunch at school, and, of course, all the recesses. Alex likes school well enough I suppose. She likes her teachers so far and for the most part she’s doing well (homework is STILL a huge issue with her and it will only get worse next year). She abhors riding the bus and I swear she misses it at times to avoid riding it. (Um, hello? ASK for a ride in advance. It’ll be more pleasant for everyone. Trust me.)

Basketball (for school) is in full swing with practices every day and games twice a week. Their last game is October 27th. Alex is also on her AAU team, though she’s ineligible to play in a game until the school season ends. AAU has practices 2-3 times a week and a couple of tournaments that she will miss due to the ineligibility (and 3 others who are on the AAU and the school team).  All of the clubs are starting up, or will soon: Science Club (Science Olympiad), Chess, Computer Game Programming, etc.

Phoebe is in a high level of ballet than she was last year. They are doing more complicated things, learning to spot, and not goofing off quite as much. She loves it though! Soccer is also underway. Tuesdays are hard because she is home from school for 40 minutes, off to ballet, then off to a soccer game. Thursdays are usually soccer practice (and school) and she has games on Saturday morning. October 18th is the last game. It’s already cold and windy.

October would usually bring cooler weather, but honestly, I don’t want it much cooler! Not yet. We had our corn bin delivered. They guys used my retaining wall blocks to set it on! WTH? So, thank goodness it didn’t have a ton (literally) of corn in it yet, so Ray and I were able to move it onto cinder blocks instead. So, heating season is upon us and no corn yet. Guess that’s alright since the glass on our corn stove has a crack so we cannot fire it up just yet.

Like I said, we’ll be buying pumpkins this year. Halloween is coming (Alex’s favorite holiday) up. We still need to make a trip to the apple orchard and cider mill (the nice one with the press running and all…not just the shack to buy the stuff in).

Time to get the winter garb out, dust it off, clear out the mothballs, and get prepared.

I’m not ready for the cold.

It is still raining… pretty much nonstop since Friday afternoon. Uck.

Alex had a friend over to spend the night last night and decided she did not want to try out for the travel softball team here (tryouts were at 9 am this morning). I suspect, though, that they may have been rescheduled or they’ll have an additional one so she may change her mind. We’ll see.

Alex does have a basketball practice this afternoon. I have no idea when her friend is supposed to be picked up (no one thought to find out!) so it may end up being AFTER Alex has to leave for practice. Guess we’ll see, eh? This practice in non-negotiable. After all, she is the one who wants to play on this team!

The pool is overflowing from all the rain. I’ve bailed the water off the cover over the hot tub twice yesterday, need to again today… I am willing to bet that the rain has thrown the pool chemistry (alkalinity, specifically) so out of whack that there is no chlorine left in it. I’ll throw the last of our shock in when I take Alex to practice later. As long as it doesn’t turn green and crap. I really don’t want to have to spend all that time and money fixing the water just to close it up for the winter!

Hope you’re having a nicer, drier weekend!

Almost done with Bella and Edward…not much to go. I’m starting to feel sad about that.

Today we did a few things.

First, we took Ray’s truck in to get new tires. His are WAY overdue for new ones, especially since one blew out on the highway on him yesterday!

When we got back to the house, Ray started cutting metal fencing down to use as reinforcements in our patio slab. While he worked on that, I opened the pool up, vacuumed it and then threw in some shock.

Then the phone call came that the truck was done and we went to pick it up. The timing was really good actually.

After we returned and all had lunch, Ray and I got started on our patio slab. Except for the first load, we mixed each and every bag of cement mix separately in our wheelbarrow.

One thing that surprised us very much was that Phoebe was out there with us trying her best to help the entire time we worked on it. Alex, on the other hand, was holed up in the house, on the phone with her friend pretty much all day. Phoebe has, in fact, helped with every single thing that we have done toward this.

In the end, we now have a wet, shiny, freshly made slab of concrete curing on our patio as I type. Once it has dried and strengthened, it will become home to a hot tub! Very exciting though it is, it will be a bit more work before it is useful. It needs a new heater, a cover, and power hooked up. Its still exciting. That and it will be off our trailer where it is currently residing.

The swimming pool was tremendously refreshing and such after working today. And, FUN!

Now, we are working on recovery.

Those gosh-darned moles. Not only do they dig up the yard and turn it into an ankle break waiting to happen, they are digging UNDER the swimming pool. What does this mean? When the tunnels collapse, we get a wiggly little trench in the bottom of the pool. Do you have any idea how much a pain in the butt it is to brush and vacuum those little squiggly trenches?? Do you? Ugh.

We did not get a whole lot accomplished today. Or, so it seems.

I went to cut the grass today, but it was a little wet out so it didn’t go very well and I stopped.

Ray lit a fire in the fire pit and started to burn up more of the brush from our downed tree. I pulled a bunch of weeds from around the tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, and butternut.

Then the rain started, so we put the chairs into the barn, parked the mower and went inside.

After a while, a friend called about coming by to cut up and haul away some of the wood from that tree. Ray and I went back out. I put more brush on the fire which brought it back to burning life. Ray wielded his chainsaw a little bit. We moved the wood from the back to the trailer and drove it to the front side of the barn. Mainly because it was by the burning fire pit.

Then it started to rain. Again.

The friend and his brother-in-law arrived, loaded a bunch of the wood into their truck and stopped short of all the stuff down and cut because of the weight of it all.

The rain drizzled the whole time they were here. Which, really, wasn’t too long.

A little while after they left and the rain had stopped (again), I went outside. Phoebe wanted desperately to swim. I put the ATV into the barn. Then, I drove the tractor over to where the wood piles were and mowed that down quickly and then put that into the barn as well.

Then Phoebe got in the pool. Then the rain started up again. She swam for about five minutes total and got out without complaint.

I’d like to say we got back outside and did something else, but sadly, the rain did not let up this time. Tomorrow doesn’t look good either as Alex has a softball tournament that will take up our whole day, just about (team purple).